Drobo Mini is Small in Size, Huge in Storage

Shooting the next award-winning documentary? You might want the Drobo Mini in your corner. The new portable SSD array has room for tons of storage, and has the transfer speeds needed for media professionals to edit in the field.

The Drobo Mini features four 2.5″ drive bays along with an optional mSATA accelerator. There are two Thunderbolt ports and one USB 3.0 port, so you’re guaranteed the fastest possible transfer speeds at present. As for data security, instead of allowing for manual RAID level switching, the Drobo Mini has its own data protection system, appropriately called BeyondRAID. This automatically handles data security and can self-repair data in the event of one or more drive failures. Instead of RAID, BeyondRAID doesn’t use the smallest drive as a limiting factor when engaging in multi-disk data protection. Otherwise, it’s largely the same kind of redundant data protection you’d be accustomed to with RAID, only much simpler to use. There’s also backup battery power, so you’ll have time to do an emergency save should the power go out.

This all comes in a package that weighs less than three pounds, so it’s looking like a great choice for anyone working in the field. The Drobo Mini can be purchased in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB bundles, with prices starting at $1,200. You can also buy the Drobo Mini empty for $450, which is fine—any internal 2.5″ SSD or HDD should work, so you’re free to use any that you already own.